Don Bender is the Principal of Cold War Research, a Livingston, New Jersey-based consultancy specializing in research and historic preservation involving Cold War era sites and military facilities.
His recent projects and consulting activities have involved army and air force bases, missile sites, radar installations, maintenance and supply facilities and many others. His research and preservation activities, as well as his writing and speaking engagements throughout the New York City metro area have earned him the title, “Mr. Cold War”.
Through his historical activities, he has assisted the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, local and state historic preservation agencies, the Danish Foreign Policy Institute (Copenhagen), the Italian Air Force, and many other organizations across the United States and overseas.
He is the founder of the New York-New Jersey Nike Survey, an ongoing historical project that is documenting Cold War era missile installations throughout the New York metro area and beyond. The Nike Survey has used field investigations, archival research and photography to help to document these now historic military facilities. Interviews with former personnel have also been an important part of this project.
Bender played a key role in the preservation of the former Montauk Air Force Station, located within Camp Hero State Park on Long Island, New York. As a result of his efforts, he was invited by Commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Bernadette Castro as a keynote speaker at the official opening of Camp Hero State Park during September of 2002.
As a leading expert on the history of the Nike missile system, Bender has also played a substantial role in the ongoing restoration of the former U.S. Army Nike missile site at historic Fort Hancock, New Jersey, where he has assisted the U.S. National Park Service with historical research and by conducting numerous public programs. Along with Sandy Hook Historian Tom Hoffman, and Nike system veteran John McKenna, he lead the first ever public tour of the Fort Hancock Nike missile site.
Bender’s work has been profiled in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Star Ledger and other major print media. He has made numerous television appearances on WNBC-TV New York, the ABC, CBS and NBC television networks, the Travel Channel and the History Channel.
A prolific writer and a popular speaker, he is also the author of one dozen entries for the popular Encyclopedia of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press) that cover a variety of topics including former Nike and BOMARC missile sites, military bases, rocketry, technology organizations and more.
He can be reached at coldwarpreservation@gmail.com.